Eggless Nan Khatai Cheesecake with saffron and dark chocolate

Since we all love a good cheesecake in the house, I thought, why don't I make a cheesecake that uses nan khatai as the base? The texture would still be the same and it would bring a mild Indian taste to the desert. I could add a bit of saffron and cardamom to the cheese layer on top to bring out the Indian flavour! I also added a chocolate layer which gave some extra sweetness.

Nankhatai recipe

You will need :- Base

• 10-12 Nan khatai cookies - crushed

You will need :- Chocolate layer

• 50 g dark chocolate
• 30 ml double cream

You will need :- Cheese layer

• 250 g ricotta cheese
• 250 g cream cheese
• 1/2 cup double cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3-4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp corn flour ( starch )
• 1/2 tsp cardamom essence
• 1/2 tsp saffron essence
• 8-10 saffron threads

You will need :- Garnishing

• 2 tbsp Chocolate shaves
• 2 tbsp slivered almonds and pistachio

Method :-
Take 2 x 5 inch round spring form cake tin. ( it's ideal for individual portions ).
Greased with little butter and firmly press the crushed nan khatai . You won't need any butter as Nan Khatai has plenty of ghee.
Leave it aside.
Take chocolate and cream in a saucepan, melt the chocolate for about minute or so and turn off the heat. Keep mixing and stirring, you'll have chocolate ganache ready.
Pour chocolate ganache on top of the base and leave it to cool completely. Ganache should go hard.
Pre heat oven to gas mark 4 or 180C.
Beat gently all the cheese layer ingredients in a big bowl until the mixture goes thicker. It won't take so much time.
Pour cheese mixture on top of the chocolate ganache and bake both cake tins in the pre heated oven for half an hour.
After half an hour turn off the oven, leave the cake tin in there but keep oven door open.
Take out cake tins after 20-25 minutes from the oven, let it cool completely then chill them overnight in the fridge.
Next day decorate cheesecake with chocolate shaves and slivered nuts.